Power outage news from around the world

Johannesburg Water authority says its systems are steadily improving after a power failure at the Vereeniging purification plant infrastructure. The authority says the pumping system is making steady progress after the water supply was affected for the past two days which affected pumping capacity at the bulk supplier’s Eikenhof pump station leaving most of the serviced areas without water supply.

Umgeni Water says the plant has not been receiving power for a while, meaning they are unable to treat water to drinking standards. Umgeni Water is responsible for the supply of drinking water to the eThekwini metro. Contractors are doing everything they can to restore the power supply as quickly as possible.

Birnin Kebbi residents have decried incessant power outage caused by Kaduna Electric Distribution Company (KAEDCO), which according to them, has paralysed socio-economic activities in the area. Businessmen and shop owners are badly affected, the excessive power outage has almost crippled their businesses due to insufficient supply of power on daily basis.

The Cuban Electric Union reported that the provinces from Cienfuegos to Guantanamo were without power. The event is associated with a fault in the 220 kV Matanzas-Santa Clara and Matanzas-Cienfuegos lines. Specialists from the sector began the restoration process and the causes of the failure are being investigated

Households and enterprises in seven regions across Kazakhstan were temporarily knocked off the power grid as temperatures dropped to around -14 degrees Celsius over the weekend, in fresh evidence of how the country is struggling to cope with inexorably mounting demand for electricity. State-run power grid operator KEGOC said in a statement that the need to effect an emergency suspension of transmissions on a high-voltage power line led to a 10 percent reduction in capacity.

Pakistan suffered a huge power cut following a breakdown in its national grid, leaving millions of people without electricity. Power minister Khurrum Dastagir said the grid failure followed a frequency variation in southern Pakistan. Pakistan often suffers from power cuts, which are blamed on mismanagement and a lack of investment in infrastructure.

Chaos erupted at the Philippines’ main gateway, after it faced a severe power outage, paralysing the country’s air traffic control and disrupting over 300 flights causing misery for over 65,000 passengers, the Associated Press reported.

Residents from Gansbaai, Stanford and Hermanus were left without any power supply following a power outage. The power failure were the result of the increasing pressure on the municipality's water and sanitation infrastructure. The power supply failure comes hot on the heels of Eskom announcing stage 6 load shedding.

Several districts of southern Paris were plunged into darkness on Thursday night due to a power outage tied to a technical glitch on an electrical transformer of energy supplier Enedis.

Power cuts in South Africa have intensified, with the most industrialized state on the continent having to cut electricity for six hours every day. Anger is mounting over the sweeping measures, caused by failures of ageing and poorly maintained infrastructure. Andre de Ruyter, the boss of state-owned Eskom, announced a series of planned outages in the coming week. Urging South Africans to use electricity sparingly, he called for office lights to be turned off at night, and for swimming pool pumps and water heaters to be turned off during peak hours.

About 700 passengers on Tokyu Railways Co.'s Den-en-toshi Line had to get off a train and walk along the tracks to the nearest station because of a power outage caused by a substation glitch. Power outages also occurred on Tokyu's Oimachi Line and between Shibuya and Kiyosumi-shirakawa stations on Tokyo Metro's Hanzomon Line, which connects directly with the Den-en-toshi Line, affecting a total of approximately 180,000 passengers.

Large swaths of Bangladesh left without electricity after a grid failure, a government official said, adding that authorities were working to gradually restore the power supply in the country of 168 million people. Almost 75-80 percent of the country were affected by the failure.

There are nearly zero chances that the energy crisis will lead to power cuts, Environment and Energy Minister Kostas Skrekas said on Tuesday, talking to the private broadcaster Skai, ANA reports. Skrekas said that no bonus will be given for decreasing natural gas consumption as this would be hard to calculate for apartment blocks with shared central heating systems

Bengaluru is most likely to see some power outages as the Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation Limited (KTPCL) is undertaking some projects that were delayed due to torrential rain in the city. Check the list of affected divisions and areas by following the link.

South Africa's Eskom will reduce planned power cuts this week after sufficient progress was made in replenishing emergency generation reserves. Eskom's aging power stations run mostly on coal and are highly prone to faults, resulting in frequent outages which constrain economic growth. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa's government has tried to reform Eskom to make it more efficient, but progress has been slow.

The Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (Tangedco) said that power was suspended in parts of Chennai in Tambaram, Poonamalle, Southuperumbedu, Kolathur carrying out maintenance work in the city.

A major power outage impacted in several parts of Oman. Chairman APSR said that the reason of the outages was due to technical reasons. He explained that the interruption started as a result of a technical failure in the 400 kilovolt power transmission lines (the main line and the backup line) linking the two main stations of Ibri and Nihaida.

Uganda is facing questions on just how much of its generated electricity serves Ugandans, days after the country entered a cycle of irregular supply and power outages, following the collapse of one hydropower station. According to the Electricity Regulatory Authority (ERA), Uganda produces more power than it consumes, with current installed capacity of 1,346.6MW, against peak consumption of 794MW. Energy minister Ruth Nankabirwa said the emergency shutdown at Isimba dam means key consumers need imported power.

Factories in China’s southwest were shut down and a city imposed rolling power failures after reservoirs to generate hydropower ran low in a worsening drought, adding to economic strains at a time when President Xi Jinping is trying to extend his hold on power.

At least one flight was delayed from the Penang International Airport (PIA) during the power failure that hit the island, while factories in the area ground to a halt for up to three hours. AirAsia northern region manager Kenneth Tan confirmed the incident. Factories and schools in the area reported a short blackout, but the recovery took longer for some.

Nigeria’s electricity grid has collapsed again, causing power failures and affecting businesses and livelihoods across the nation. The incident comes 38 days after the national grid suffered a system failure on June 13. Kaduna Electrics said that the cause of the blackout was due to grid collapse.

Bangladesh has been facing severe power cuts for the last week that the government blames on a natural gas shortage. However, the cuts have spurred protests and criticism of past government policies, as well as calls for new policies.

As power outages continue in parts of the national capital region (NCR) under Uttar Pradesh in Noida, Ghaziabad, residents living in high-rise flats claimed that they are suffering from frequent power cuts and faulty backup by builders.

Nigeria’s wobbly national electricity grid has collapsed yet again, throwing several cities including the federal capital Abuja into darkness.

A major fault in the 400 KV high-tension transmission lines of Maharashtra State Electricity Transmission Company Limited (MSETCL) at Chakan and Lonikand substations disrupted power supply to the twin cities of Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad in the early hours.